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Planning Your System Upgrade

Cisco Unified Communications System Overview

Cisco Unified Communications 500 Series for Small Business

Cisco Unified Communications Manager Express Solution for Medium Business

Scope of this Upgrade Documentation

Release Sets

Upgrade Roadmap


Planning Your System Upgrade

This topic provides an overview of the upgrade process for IP telephony components, the software releases that are involved in the upgrade process, and the different upgrade strategies that can be used based on the size of your network.

This topic contains the following sections:

•Cisco Unified Communications System Overview

•Release Sets

•Upgrade Roadmap

Note Many of the IP telephony component names have changed as part of Cisco Unified Communications System releases. The latest product names are used in this document, even when referencing products from previous releases.

Cisco Unified Communications System Overview

The Cisco Unified Communications System is a full-featured business communications system built into an intelligent IP network. It enables voice, data, and video communications for businesses of all sizes. The Cisco Unified Communications System is defined around commonly deployed enterprise, midmarket, and small and medium business topology models. The Cisco Unified Communications System testing process validates the interoperability of voice products to ensure that they work together as an integrated system.

Cisco Systems provides an integrated system to meet a wide variety of needs. It includes of communications products that are designed, developed, tested, documented, sold, and supported as one entity. This system is built upon IP telephony products, including call control and processing, conferencing, voice mail and messaging products, and voice-capable gateways and routers.

The Cisco Unified Communications System offers two solutions for small and medium businesses:

•Cisco Unified Communications 500 Series for Small Business (Cisco Unified 500 Series) which is an integral component of Cisco Smart Business Communication System is suitable for small businesses having lesser than 50 users.

•Cisco offers Cisco Unified Communications Manager Express Solution on Cisco Integrated Services Router for medium businesses having 50 to 250 users

Cisco Unified Communications 500 Series for Small Business

Cisco Unified Communications 500 Series for Small Business (Unified Communications 500 Series) is an affordable integrated system that brings voice, data, video, and wireless networking to small businesses. Unified Communication 500 Series is an integral component of Cisco Smart Business Communication System for small businesses. Cisco IOS Software solution embedded in the Cisco Unified Communications 500 Series appliance provides Cisco Unified Communications Manager Express for call processing and Cisco Unity Express for voicemail, desktop messaging and Automated-Attendant services.

Cisco Unified Communications Manager Express Solution for Medium Business

Cisco Unified Communications Manager Express Solution provides highest voice trunk densities, scalability and performance for IP Communications. Cisco Unified Communications Manager Express is a Cisco IOS Software solution that provides call processing for Cisco Unified IP phones. Simple to deploy, administer, and maintain, Cisco Unified Communications Express is a reliable, feature-rich telephony solution. Depending on the Cisco Integrated Services Router you install, you can have up to 240 IP phones on your company network.

Scope of this Upgrade Documentation

The upgrade process that is discussed in this document addresses upgrade strategies, preparations for the upgrade operation, order of operations such as the sequence in which the IP telephony components should be upgraded, and other dependencies such as backward compatibility of software.

This topic provides information that is related to upgrading components that are present in the base release sets that are to be upgraded. See Release Sets for more information.

This topic does not provide installation, upgrade, or backup procedures for:

•Components that are not part of the existing production network and are that are being newly added as a part of the next release. This information is available in the documentation for those components.

•Individual standalone components such as Unified Communications Manager Express and Cisco Unity Express. It only addresses the upgrade procedures of Cisco Unified Communications System components at the system level.

•Third-party coresident applications (although these applications may be used during the upgrade and backup process) such as:

–Security

–Server management

–Remote access

•Additional third-party off-board applications such as:

–Operator console

–Billing and accounting

•Server replacement (hardware upgrade) for components. See the documentation for individual components for this information.

Release Sets

A release set is the combination of products, components, and software versions that were tested to work together as an integrated Cisco Unified Communications system. A particular system release is also referred to as a release set.

A base release or release set is the release set that is being upgraded. A target release or release set is the release set to which the base release set is being upgraded.

The systems that are involved in the upgrade and that are discussed in this document include:

–Cisco Unified Communications System Release 6.0(1)—For detailed information about the IP telephony deployment models and topologies that are developed to test this release set, see Review Tested Site Models for IP Telephony.

Note Cisco Unified Communications Manager Express 4.1/ IOS 12.4(15)T is part of the Cisco Unified Communications System Release 6.0(1) set.

–Cisco Unified Communications System Release 6.1(1)—For detailed information about the IP telephony deployment models and topologies that are developed to test this release set, see Review Tested Site Models for IP Telephony

Note Cisco Unified Communications Manager Express 4.1/ IOS 12.4(15)T and 4.2/IOS 12.4(11)XW5 are part of the Cisco Unified Communications System Release 6.1(1) set.

•Target release:

–Cisco Unified Communications System Release 7.0(1)—The new software release set that is the goal of the upgrade process, regardless of your base release set. For detailed information about the IP telephony deployment models and topologies that were developed to test this release set, see Review Tested Site Models for IP Telephony.

You can directly upgrade to Cisco Unified Communications Manager Express 7.0/12.4(20)T from the following versions for Cisco Unified Communications Manager Express/IOS:

•Cisco Unified Communications Manager Express 4.0(2)/IOS 12.4(11)T3

•Cisco Unified Communications Manager Express 4.0(2)/IOS 12.4(11)T2

•Cisco Unified Communications Manager Express 4.0(2)/IOS 12.4(11)T

•Cisco Unified Communications Manager Express 3.4(0)/IOS 12.4(6)T1

•Cisco Unified Communications Manager Express 3.4(0)/IOS 12.4(6)T

Note The above Cisco Unified Communications Manager Express versions are not part of Unified Communications System.

For detailed information about the software versions of the components in the base and target release sets, see Chapter 5, "Preparing for Your System Upgrade."

For installation information on Cisco Unified Communications System Release 7.0(1) IP telephony Enterprise and Midmarket components, see the following:
http://www.cisco.com/en/US/docs/voice_ip_comm/uc_system/UC7.0.1/ipt_system_inst_upg/suimt.pdf

For installation information on Cisco Unified Communications System Release 7.0(1) Contact Center components, see the following:
http://www.cisco.com/en/US/docs/voice_ip_comm/uc_system/UC7.0.1/cc_system_inst_upg/siumc_701.pdf

Upgrade Roadmap

This section provides a summary of the high-level upgrade tasks:

Step 1 Review your hardware and software requirements.

For example, verify that the deployed hardware configurations and operating system support the target release and are ready for an upgrade.

Step 2 Perform all required hardware equipment checks.

Step 3 Upgrade the existing network components from the base release set to the target release set.

Step 4 The existing network should include components that are already supported by one of the base release sets.

Use the recommended upgrade paths defined to perform the upgrade.

Install and configure new components that are supported by the target release.

Step 5 Remove or replace any components from your network that are not part of the target release or that have reached end-of-life (EOL) or end-of-sale (EOS).